Thursday, July 28, 2016

One of the best known legends from York County, Pennsylvania is Toad Road and the Seven Gates of Hell. What is the real story? Where are the Seven Gates of Hell? Where is Toad Road? Extensive research and on site exploration is combined to dispel urban legends while revealing stranger truths.

Journey beyond the Seventh Gate and into other weird places in York, Lancaster, and Adams Counties. Explore Hex Hollow, Chickies Rock, lonely graveyards, and old iron forges. Read true tales of bigfoot creatures, witches, ghosts, werewolves, and flying phantoms. Sometimes they haunt the woods behind you. Sometimes they are in your own back yard.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

During the research for my forthcoming book, Beyond the Seventh Gate, I started finding a connection between old iron furnaces and paranormal activity. In Pennsylvania, and I expect worldwide, it seems where you find abandoned forges, you will find strange activities. I can almost guarantee where you find a furnace you will find a ghost story at the very least. Chances are you will find more than just one story, and possibly more than just ghosts.

The most famous legend associated with iron furnaces in Pennsylvania is that of the Ewige Jaeger or Eternal Hunter. While the Eternal Hunter has been tied to more than one Pennsylvania furnace, the tales most often have Cornwall Furnace as the center of the tale. Retelling ghost stories is not my interest, unless they are rare or add something to my other research, so I'll keep this short. Those who are interested can easily find the story in any number of ghost story books or online. Briefly, a cruel ironmaster drove his hunting hounds into the fires of the furnace. He was tormented by this for the rest of his life and, upon his death, he was cursed to roam the hills with his hounds in spectral form.

The cruel ironmaster is another common factor in these iron furnace ghost stories. Another "cruel ironmaster" was at the heart of a ghost story associated with Codorus Furnace in York County. Perhaps it took a cruel man to manage a forge. It was hard and dangerous work, after all. Or perhaps it's just easy to imagine that any forge worker had to be cold and hard, like the iron they produced? The ironmaster being the coldest of them all.

Are cruel men enough to draw the supernatural to these locations? There are cruel people everywhere, after all. Codorus Furnace produced grapeshot, cannon balls, and cannons for the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Did these implements of war draw the supernatural there?

How would this explain cryptid sightings, which also seem to happen around furnaces?

Some have said that bigfoot creatures are simply curious about manmade structures and abandoned places are, well, abandoned. Free from regular human activity, these creatures could more easily satisfy their curiosity around these abandoned structures. Others have suggested they are getting dietary minerals left over from the iron manufacturing process that are present in the soil. Yes, eating dirt.

The albatwitch, those short hairy apple-eating bipeds of Pennsylvania, are said to make their home around the Chickies Rock area of Lancaster County. (I'll speak much more of albatwitch in a future article)... There was, at one time, seven iron furnaces located in what is now Chickies Rock park (there were eight total between Columbia and Marietta). The furnaces are in various states of decay now, but you can still find remnants and ruins of most of them. The wrench in the theories presented in the above paragraph is: the albatwitch legend predates the furnaces at Chickies Rock. The Susquehannock painted images of albatwitch on their war shields. Chickies Rock is also considered to be one of the most haunted places in the state of Pennsylvania. Many strange tales come out of that park - before and after the furnaces were there.

It seems iron furnaces were often placed in similar geographic areas. Codorus Furnace is along Codorus Creek while Chickies Rock is along the Susquehanna River, for instance. Perhaps this accounts for some of the phenomena. I'm guessing the geological features would also be quite similar (it would have been beneficial to have iron nearby, at the very least).

Iron itself was used to keep away the supernatural. Faeries and witches of legend were said to avoid iron. The iron horseshoe became a symbol of good luck. etc etc... So it seems especially strange that iron furnaces should become something like supernatural lightning rods.

I am very interested in any tales of cryptid activity around iron furnaces. If you know of any stories, please contact me.

My drawing of Codorus Furnace. 2016. For much more on the history and weirdness of Codorus Furnace, see Beyond the Seventh Gate.

Friday, July 15, 2016

If you are not familiar with David Paulides' Missing 411 series, I highly recommend getting familiar with those books. Do NOT buy them on Amazon or Ebay or you will pay far too much - instead get them directly from Paulides at CanAm Missing Project.

A very short description is: Paulides became aware of unsolved / unexplained missing persons reports throughout the National Parks system - as well as in adjacent areas. Paulides has been criticized by some for presenting a few cases amongst the MANY he has found which possibly can be explained. These same folks take the fact that a few cases may be explained to mean that ALL of them can be explained. It's the same logic that applies to bigfoot research - one confirmed hoax is taken as evidence that it's all a hoax.

To get back on track - Paulides has noted several disturbing similarities amongst many of the cases, besides geographical locations. For instance, when the bodies are found, they are often found in places where Search and Rescue teams had previously looked. They are found often in boulder fields. Often, it is the last in line who gets taken. There are many, many other oddities woven into these strange cases - including toddlers found on the top of mountains which experienced climbers would have trouble ascending. Young children found 15 or 20 miles away from where they went missing, just a day or so later. The list goes on.

It isn't just children who go missing either - but people of all ages.

Paulides has identified "clusters" of missing people throughout the US/Canada (and even worldwide). While most of these are national parks and areas nearby, he has noted the entire state of Pennsylvania as a "cluster." Up until about the mid-20th century he noted that it was children who tended to go missing in PA. At some point, there was a shift, and now it seems to be men who are going missing in PA.

While Paulides has also been involved in bigfoot research and there are some hints in his book that bigfoot or something like it may be responsible for some of these disappearances - he never goes so far as to say exactly what or who he thinks may be responsible. Instead, he simply presents the evidence and lets the readers come to their own conclusions.

Here is a very interesting talk Paulides gave in 2013 in which he talks about bigfoot research, DNA, and his Missing 411 research:

Paulides and his son are set to release a Missing 411 documentary film this year.

Saturday, July 9, 2016

It was a hot Saturday, but my son was up for a hike. These days I'm almost always up for a hike - so off we went to our current stomping grounds: a park in York County that is rarely occupied by other humans - at least the sections we've been hiking.

We were sweating before we left the parking lot, but I brought plenty of water. The views here are always worth it. From the trail head we can hear a local dog barking, but as we make our way up the hill it fades, or the dog gives up, figuring we're no threat to his owners. Either way, the sounds of the woods take over. The rapid fire knocking of woodpeckers echoes through the trees. As we ascend higher the same crows that always greet us sound their caws.

We stop, so soon, for our first water break - maybe 20 minutes into the hike. "It's not the heat, it's the humidity," the saying goes. I rather think it's BOTH. Stay hydrated folks. I ask my son, "do you want to go downhill to the creek, the way we went last time - or do you want to follow this other path uphill?" I know the answer before he says it. I've observed him hiking of late and he's a lot like me - he always wants to take a different trail. He always wants to know what's over the next hill or around the next bend. Uphill we went. That's my boy.

It's not a steep grade, but we stop again for water before we reach the top. The gnats and mosquitoes are awful. I put a head net over my hat - I don't mind swatting them away from my arms, but I just can't abide gnats in my ears. Still we hear the woodpeckers and a pretty songbird I can't identify. My son points out a rather large fungal bloom along the path:

The trail splits again - my son chooses the obviously less traveled and narrower path (and I smile proudly to myself). Eventually it meets back up with the main trail as the blazes show we are back on course. We round another bend and I think I hear something, so I freeze.

What I hear though, is nothing. No birds. No insects. I started looking around - something didn't feel right. Then things started falling from the trees - or so I thought. "What IS that?" I asked my son. "I don't know," came his reply. I'm looking for what could be dropping from the trees when I see a small stone hit the dirt in front of me. I'm trying to make sense of this - I've heard the stories about what throws stones in the woods. I'm looking around. What sounds like a handful of pebbles hits the ground to the right of me. Ok, this is getting weird.

Then I hear motors. Is that a helicopter or something overhead? I'm trying to make sense of all of it all and failing. The motor sounds get closer. Perhaps it's a park ranger coming through if there are some wider trails up ahead? Then I hear "What's THAT?!??" and I spin around and see the headlight of a four wheeler. "THAT" was me, and the question came from the rider. He was moving fast. I wave my arms to let them know my son and I are on the trail. Turning around, I grab my son and pull him off to the side.

One. Two. Three four wheelers followed by a dirt bike. Not park rangers. It's a free country and all, but motorized vehicles aren't supposed to be in this park. I really shouldn't have to worry about my son's safety from four wheelers on these hiking trails. The mood was ruined. My son was a bit shaken and says "Do you want to go back?" He was done - not because he was too tired to go on or was worried about anything in the woods, but because a group of humans who think they are above the rules set out for everyone barreled through the trail without concern for anyone or anything but themselves.

I pause for a moment and let them get a way further on the trail. More water. I'm waiting for the stones to start hitting again - but nothing. Only the sound of engines fading.

On the way back we saw the fungus crushed by tires.

...

I don't know WHAT was throwing the stones. For all I know it could have come from the fellows on the dirt bikes (though I don't know how). I know it stopped when the engines came close and I know it didn't continue after they passed. Stone throwing is very consistent with reported bigfoot behavior, but without SEEING something, who can say what it was? Other than weird. It was certainly weird.

Friday, July 8, 2016

Much is often made of various Native American names for bigfoot - and this is a very valid pursuit. I believe we can learn a lot from the stories and descriptions of the First Nations people. They were here, after all, a long long time before Europeans came to the "New World."

However, folklore of all places has its various monsters- some of them are perhaps entirely mythical while others may be based on cryptid sightings. Some are likely a combination of both. In this series I will present some creatures of South Central Pennsylvania in a combination of history, folklore, and some speculative rumination.

The first of the series will be Trotterhead... which is spelled more often "Trotter Head" but as it is a word translated from German, albeit very roughly and having gone through a bit of folk process along the way, I prefer the compound "Trotterhead." I've also found reference to the creature being called "Old Trotter Head."

The name is most popularly found in John G. Hohman's book The Long Lost Friend. (ironically this would probably be translated better as "The Long Forgotten Friend.") The Long Lost Friend was compiled / written by Hohman in the early 1800s and published in German in 1820 in Berks County, PA. It was translated into English in 1846, as The Long Secreted Friend, and again in 1856 when it became The Long Lost Friend. Different editions of this volume remain in print to this day.

Often called "The Hex Book of the Pennsylvania Dutch," The Long Lost Friend is a collection of remedies, prayers, sympathetic magic, and spells - much of the book takes its folk magic from other books or pamphlets of the time, including Egyptian Secrets (which is attributed to Albertus Magnus, though it was not his work). Locally, the practice of the cures, remedies, and spells of the type found in The Long Lost Friend was called "trying" or "powwow." While The Long Lost Friend and the folk practice of powwow these days are frequently associated with the occult - and even sometimes used as a claim for some kind of hidden pagan tradition among the PA Germans - it is important to note that practitioners of powwow in Hohman's time - and even into the 20th century did not consider this any more controversial than prayer, nor anti-Christian in the least. The Long Lost Friend sat beside the bible, not in its place. It was a passage in The Long Lost Friend where I first encountered Trotterhead:"TO PREVENT WITCHES FROM BEWITCHING CATTLE. TO BE WRITTEN AND PLACED IN THE STABLE; AND AGAINST BAD MEN AND EVIL SPIRITS WHICH NIGHTLY TORMENT OLD AND YOUNG PEOPLE. TO BE WRITTEN AND PLACED ON THE BEDSTEAD.'Trotter Head, I forbid thee my house and premises; I forbid thee my horse and cow stable; I forbid thee my bedstead, that thou mayst not breathe upon me; breathe into some other house, until thou hast ascended every hill, until thou has counted every fencepost, and until thou hast crossed every water. And thus dear day may come again into my house, in the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.'This will certainly protect and free all persons and animals from witchcraft."What sort of creature then is this Trotterhead? What kind of name is that? Some sources have that it was a fairly straight translation of a "meaningless" term from the German edition ("Trotter Kopf") - but this idea has always been problematic to my mind. There is nothing else "meaningless" or nonsensical in all of The Long Lost Friend. Aside from the fact it is a book dealing with folk magic, the approach of Hohman is actually quite plain and practical. There's not much whimsy in the book.Still leaving us to wonder what exactly IS this Trotterhead? If we go to the similar charm in Egyptian Secrets, which predates The Long Lost Friend, we begin to get some clues. Here, Trotterhead is not mentioned but, instead, something called the "Bettzaierle." Bettzaierle is an Austrian term which translates to something like "bedgoblin." A bedgoblin is, fairly plainly, a reference to a nightmare - or an entity that brings nightmares.But how did we get from Bettzaierle all the way to Trotterhead? Let's take a look... I'll stop here to say the German research was done for me by Moritz Maier (thank you Moritz!). Similar charms to the Trotterhead passage are found in other sources and spelled differently - some of these are regional dialects. Hohman's charm in German had the creature as "Trotter Kopf" - other charms have the creature named / spelled as Trottenkopf, Troudenkopf, Drudenkopf, etc. These all seem to refer to beings which are responsible for bringing nightmares. Drudenkopf (Drude-head) is perhaps the clearest root, the drude being female entities with magical powers such as shapeshifting, creeping through cracks in houses*, and the like. So, the drude is essentially a form of a witch. With the suffix "-head" (kopf) on all of these we can assume the creatures were about getting into people's heads - bringing nightmares - the meaning is essentially the same as the "bedgoblin" even though the words are quite different. Moritz pointed out to me that the "trot" in Trotterhead may have become part of the equation as well - as "trotten" is a German verb (to trot) - so the charm that may be intended to stop this creature not just from treading across ones property, and from trotting across (or through) ones head in the form of a nightmare - but also from "trotting" or stamping on ones chest... for the Nachtmahr (literally "nightmare") was another entity, almost certainly related to these others, which was known to sit on a sleeper's chest.So, the Trotterhead brought nightmares to men, but how did it afflict livestock? I wonder, here if we have some connection to "witch knots" those braids and tangles found in horse's manes? ... ....and so: connecting Trotterhead to cryptids in an admittedly big leap...*This "creeping through cracks" business reminds me very much of that scary critter from traditional folk ballads, Long Lankin - who "lived in the moss" and crept into the house through a crack in the glass.

Much is often made of various Native American names for bigfoot - and this is a very valid pursuit. I believe we can learn a lot from the stories and descriptions of the First Nations people. They were here, after all, a long long time before Europeans came to the "New World."

However, folklore of all places has its various monsters- some of them are perhaps entirely mythical while others may be based on cryptid sightings. Some are likely a combination of both. In this series I will present some creatures of South Central Pennsylvania in a combination of history, folklore, and some speculative rumination.

The first of the series will be Trotterhead... which is spelled more often "Trotter Head" but as it is a word translated from German, albeit very roughly and having gone through a bit of folk process along the way, I prefer the compound "Trotterhead." I've also found reference to the creature being called "Old Trotter Head."

The name is most popularly found in John G. Hohman's book The Long Lost Friend. (ironically this would probably be translated better as "The Long Forgotten Friend.") The Long Lost Friend was compiled / written by Hohman in the early 1800s and published in German in 1820 in Berks County, PA. It was translated into English in 1846, as The Long Secreted Friend, and again in 1856 when it became The Long Lost Friend. Different editions of this volume remain in print to this day.

Often called "The Hex Book of the Pennsylvania Dutch," The Long Lost Friend is a collection of remedies, prayers, sympathetic magic, and spells - much of the book takes its folk magic from other books or pamphlets of the time, including Egyptian Secrets (which is attributed to Albertus Magnus, though it was not his work). Locally, the practice of the cures, remedies, and spells of the type found in The Long Lost Friend was called "trying" or "powwow." While The Long Lost Friend and the folk practice of powwow these days are frequently associated with the occult - and even sometimes used as a claim for some kind of hidden pagan tradition among the PA Germans - it is important to note that practitioners of powwow in Hohman's time - and even into the 20th century did not consider this any more controversial than prayer, nor anti-Christian in the least. The Long Lost Friend sat beside the bible, not in its place. It was a passage in The Long Lost Friend where I first encountered Trotterhead:"TO PREVENT WITCHES FROM BEWITCHING CATTLE. TO BE WRITTEN AND PLACED IN THE STABLE; AND AGAINST BAD MEN AND EVIL SPIRITS WHICH NIGHTLY TORMENT OLD AND YOUNG PEOPLE. TO BE WRITTEN AND PLACED ON THE BEDSTEAD.'Trotter Head, I forbid thee my house and premises; I forbid thee my horse and cow stable; I forbid thee my bedstead, that thou mayst not breathe upon me; breathe into some other house, until thou hast ascended every hill, until thou has counted every fencepost, and until thou hast crossed every water. And thus dear day may come again into my house, in the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.'This will certainly protect and free all persons and animals from witchcraft."What sort of creature then is this Trotterhead? What kind of name is that? Some sources have that it was a fairly straight translation of a "meaningless" term from the German edition ("Trotter Kopf") - but this idea has always been problematic to my mind. There is nothing else "meaningless" or nonsensical in all of The Long Lost Friend. Aside from the fact it is a book dealing with folk magic, the approach of Hohman is actually quite plain and practical. There's not much whimsy in the book.Still leaving us to wonder what exactly IS this Trotterhead? If we go to the similar charm in Egyptian Secrets, which predates The Long Lost Friend, we begin to get some clues. Here, Trotterhead is not mentioned but, instead, something called the "Bettzaierle." Bettzaierle is an Austrian term which translates to something like "bedgoblin." A bedgoblin is, fairly plainly, a reference to a nightmare - or an entity that brings nightmares.But how did we get from Bettzaierle all the way to Trotterhead? Let's take a look... I'll stop here to say the German research was done for me by Moritz Maier (thank you Moritz!). Similar charms to the Trotterhead passage are found in other sources and spelled differently - some of these are regional dialects. Hohman's charm in German had the creature as "Trotter Kopf" - other charms have the creature named / spelled as Trottenkopf, Troudenkopf, Drudenkopf, etc. These all seem to refer to beings which are responsible for bringing nightmares. Drudenkopf (Drude-head) is perhaps the clearest root, the drude being female entities with magical powers such as shapeshifting, creeping through cracks in houses*, and the like. So, the drude is essentially a form of a witch. With the suffix "-head" (kopf) on all of these we can assume the creatures were about getting into people's heads - bringing nightmares - the meaning is essentially the same as the "bedgoblin" even though the words are quite different. Moritz pointed out to me that the "trot" in Trotterhead may have become part of the equation as well - as "trotten" is a German verb (to trot) - so the charm that may be intended to stop this creature not just from treading across ones property, and from trotting across (or through) ones head in the form of a nightmare - but also from "trotting" or stamping on ones chest... for the Nachtmahr (literally "nightmare") was another entity, almost certainly related to these others, which was known to sit on a sleeper's chest.So, the Trotterhead brought nightmares to men, but how did it afflict livestock? I wonder, here if we have some connection to "witch knots" those braids and tangles found in horse's manes? ... ....and so: connecting Trotterhead to cryptids in an admittedly big leap...*This "creeping through cracks" business reminds me very much of that scary critter from traditional folk ballads, Long Lankin - who "lived in the moss" and crept into the house through a crack in the glass.

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

It took me a year or more to track down this book. I set ebay searches and frequently hit up the usual used book sources on the internet, all of which turned up nothing. Eventually, I got it directly from Dr. Johnson. Dr. Johnson was heavily involved in researching both UFOs and bigfoot from the 1970s-1990s. He reportedly stopped taking reports as the internet gained popularity, but I am told he is still involved in research.

Living in Pennsylvania, I was most interested to read this volume. The book mostly discusses cases from the western part of the state - Chestnut Ridge and etc, but a chronological listing of reports does branch out a bit. In fact, it includes one sighting from York County (from Seven Valleys near what is now Raab park but what was, at the time, a closed landfill).

While there is some crossover in the sightings covered in The Bigfoot Phenomenon in Pennsylvania and Stan Gordon's books, the cases here are reported with more depth as well as with more photographs, maps, and illustrations. Dr. Johnson provides us with not only the data relative to the sightings (time of day, month, year, county, etc etc) but an analysis of the data.

Most interesting to me is Dr. Johnson's refusal to omit or dismiss uncomfortable details from reports. That is to say, strange lights seen in conjunction or around the same area as bigfoot sightings, reports of bigfoot glowing, "disappearing" etc etc. In fact, the author addresses this head on with the chapter titled "A Quantum Bigfoot?" - offering POSSIBLE explanations for the strangeness associated with bigfoot that isn't magic powers, and explained in such a way as the reader will not need a degree in quantum physics to grasp the concepts.

This volume isn't perfect bound - it doesn't look like something you'd pick up off the shelves of your local giant bookseller - it's spiral bound and probably printed in small batches - but it remains one of my favorite texts on the subject of bigfoot. If it takes you as long as it did me to get a copy, rest easy - it's worth the wait.

Monday, July 4, 2016

"Dogman" / upright canine sightings seem to be on the rise and Pennsylvania is one of the hotspots right now. I confess I'm not really a fan of the name "dogman" as it sounds like a bad supervillain, but it is becoming common currency, so it seems that will be the name researchers and general public alike settle on.

Most of the reports have these creatures looking like werewolves - hair covered, with a wolflike head on an upright body that looks like a hominid/wolf combination. Front arms with long hands ending in claws - which appear to be elongated paws turned into fingers or finger-like appendages. The back legs are often reported to have the bends, or hocks, as dog/wolf legs have. Werewolves are technically men that transform into wolves or wolf-man creatures, thus the term "dogman" is used - (unless someone can prove these creatures are shape-changers.)

Pennsylvania has a long history of werewolf legends - the dogman creatures may have been here when the Europeans arrived, but much of the werewolf lore and legends arrived with the Europeans (particularly the Germans). Indeed, there are so many werewolf legends in PA that we have a name for the GHOST of a werewolf - also used for the ghost of a wolf - the "spookwolf." Pennsylvania has stories of giant wolves, werewolves, werefoxes, weredogs, and more. PA even has a place named for supposed werewolves, Die Woolf Man's Grob: the story of which concerns both a werewolf and a spookwolf. But that's a story - and a song - for another day.

The PA Dogman / Upright Canine Sightings Map shows sightings throughout the state, including Central Pennsylvania. As I have collected other stories from some legend trippers / ghost hunters in South Central PA - they made references to "werewolves" and dog heads which appeared "too high in the trees" - which makes me wonder if these were actually dogman sightings as opposed to ghostly forms. If someone went to a location looking for ghosts and found something else strange - a cryptid like dogman for instance - perhaps they may assume it was an apparition as opposed to a physical creature?

If you have witnessed dogman or anything strange in South Central PA or MD please contact us at SEEKERS.

Sunday, July 3, 2016

I spent part of sunday at the Hilsmeier farm in Delta, near Muddy Creek. This might not mean a lot to you, but in terms of bigfoot in York County, it is quite significant. 1978 was a huge year for strangeness in York County and saw a wild amount of bigfoot and UFO sightings in the area - and most of these incidents occurred around Delta, Fawn Grove, Gatchelville, etc.

One night in late January, 1978, the Hilsmeier family dogs were unusually aggravated. Barking, howling, running from the fields to the house and back. The following day, the Hilsmeier's found a series of tracks across their property and beyond. More than two miles of tracks - hundreds, if not thousands of prints - each one about 18 inches long and in a straight line, not offset like human tracks... and displaying that ever so strange feature of so many Pennsylvania bigfoot tracks: three toes. Among the tracks were also found the remains of a rabbit and, on a barbed wire fence, some strands of hair.

The Hilsmeier's still have the hair - and still remember the events well. They were gracious hosts and happily talked to me about that day in 1978. For me, having read the newspaper articles and some other descriptions of their story, it was great to just have eyes on where it all happened - to see (and hold) the hair samples, and to be able to get the story firsthand. Mrs. Hilsmeier related to me that she heard something with immense lung capacity howl from the direction of Muddy Creek in the summer of that same year. She said it was frightening, very loud, and sounded like the roar of "Mighty Joe Young." As there weren't many follow-up articles discussing the events at Hilsmeier farm, this was never reported.

Muddy Creek has a history of sightings and encounters. It was along Muddy Creek, just over the hill from the Hilsmeier farm, where Bob Chance had an encounter in 1972. Not far away, near Holtwood dam, a hunter had an encounter (also in 1978) where he was paced in the woods and then, after hearing shots fired, witnessed a 7-foot tall hairy biped running off in another direction. The BFRO notes several encounters in the Delta/Peach Bottom area throughout the 1970's.

These are just a few of the sightings I have gathered from the area. If you know of others in York County or South Central PA, please contact SEEKERS - we would love to hear about them.

My hand next to a three-toed footprint cast like those found on Hilsmeier farm - though this cast comes from nearby Rocks State Park in Maryland.

Saturday, July 2, 2016

In the course of researching my book, Beyond the Seventh Gate (forthcoming), I was absolutely shocked at the number of cryptid sightings in South Central Pennsylvania. I limited myself to York, Lancaster, and Adams counties and still found hundreds of sightings going back to 1858. In the short time since SEEKERS have started taking them, we've received reports of even more sightings - both recent and going back to the 1990s.

I had expected to find a few - and I knew of a handful of sightings before I began - but I was absolutely shocked at the sheer number of sightings. Bigfoot type creatures outnumber all others by a large margin, but South Central PA has also had reports of dogman / werewolf creatures, mothman type entities, gargoyles, rakes, albatwitches, and more. Knowing it's likely most people never report their sightings - and others report them to police or game wardens and the public never hears about them - I'm absolutely sure there are hundreds of more sightings I know nothing about.

I was most excited and perplexed by the bigfoot sightings. Having read Stan Gordon's trio of books, Really Mysterious Pennsylvania, Astonishing Encounters, and Silent Invasion, I knew Pennsylvania in general - and in particular the western part of the state - had a history of bigfoot sightings. However, I just didn't think South Central PA had the vast uninhabited wilderness which would be required to attract these creatures.

That is to say IF these creatures are simply apes in the woods - and I don't use the term "ape" insultingly. Humans too are apes, after all. If they are an ape or a hominid, it's possible they are nomadic or migratory - they make their way in and out of areas stealthily. They might even prefer to stick somewhat close to farmlands (free food) and it is documented that many sightings occur along creeks and rivers - of which there is plenty in South Central PA. If these creatures are something OTHER than natural creatures, and I am not saying they are, but if they are, then we have no way of guessing the when, where, or why of their appearances.

Here we have a problem that comes up in bigfoot research. There seems to be two camps, both stubbornly sure the other group is wrong. The ape-in-the-woods crowd will not entertain any notion of bigfoot creatures being anything other than an undiscovered animal. Never mind that strange lights (you can call them UFOs if you want) are reported near or in conjunction with bigfoot sightings again and again. Never mind that some bigfoot trackways seem to just end in the middle of a field. There is some truly weird stuff that accompanies bigfoot. Not always...but enough of the time.

The other camp is the "woo" camp - and these folks are just as sure that bigfoot have magical powers. They think they can open "portals" and "mindspeak" and "zap" people. They also tend to be the folks that assert bigfoot creatures are some kind of benevolent forest guardians. Bigfoot sure seem to break a lot of trees and brutally kill a lot of wildlife for being some kind gentle of forest caretaker.

I understand the rejection of the "woo" crowd. It's hard enough to get people to take this stuff seriously - when you add in magic or superpowers it makes things so much harder. But the uncomfortable fact is most everything we know is based on witness accounts. If we believe one witness saw an 8-foot tall ape-man one day, how can we say another witness who saw strange lights in the sky at the same time just down the road is wrong or irrelevant? These events may not be connected - it might just be a crazy coincidence - but until we know if there is or isn't a connection it seems irresponsible to ignore them because they are inconvenient to our preconceived notions of what these creatures are or are not.

I didn't want to try to connect bigfoot and UFOs in Beyond the Seventh Gate - it's just not a bridge I wanted to cross in my first book - but when I started looking at the separate UFO and bigfoot sightings data - especially in York County - I started finding a lot of overlap. Again and again - where I found bigfoot sightings, I also found UFO reports. Not always, but often enough to make me feel like I would be remiss if I didn't note the crossover.

For my part, I lean toward the "ape-in-the-woods" camp, but I also can't help but think there's something else going on as well. As with so much regarding these creatures I think we just don't KNOW yet. I don't think bigfoot have magic powers - but they may have natural adaptions that we don't understand at all. They may be so quick and so good at hiding that we THINK they are disappearing. They may be so adept at tracking that they can retrace their steps and make it seem like their tracks stop. But those strange lights are really pesky.

Except for shorthand and ease of conversation, I try not to use the term "UFO" in conjunction with bigfoot. I will say "strange lights" or "orbs" or "earth lights." When I do use the term I mean it simply as an unidentified flying object - literally unidentified. Not a spaceship. UFO = spaceship = aliens to the vast majority of people and you will immediately get the annoying but completely understandable question: "So, you think bigfoot is an alien?" No. I don't even think "aliens" are aliens if I had to guess (it's all speculation, isn't it?). I'm not sure UFOs are even crafts.

Legends and folklore about erd lichtes (earth lights), will-o-the-wisps, and orbs in Pennsylvania abound. A friend just told me recently that her grandfather told tales about the will-of-the-wisps and to never follow them because they would lead you away to your doom. When Europeans came to Pennsylvania, the Naticoke told them the lights would follow you and bring you misfortune. What if it's all somehow related?

The bottom line is no one knows at this point. It may be best, in the most practical sense, to err on the side of the "ape-in-the-woods" folks. However, I'm most interested in folks like Ron Moorehead and Dr. Paul G. Johnson - both of them are talking / writing about "quantum bigfoot" - exploring the possibility that something truly strange may be happening in conjunction with bigfoot sightings - and though it seems supernatural, quantum weirdness can be explained.

For now, we continue to search and document. If you have seen anything strange in South Central PA, please let us know.

Still Living? Yeti, Sasquatch, and the Neanderthal Enigma by Myra Shackley (Thames and Hudson, 1983)

Still Living? takes the practical approach that bigfoot, yeti, and other hairy, man-like creatures seen the world over may in fact be relict hominids. While some of the information may be outdated (much has been discovered about neanderthal man since 1983, for instance), Still Living? remains a compelling read.

Most interesting are the physical distinctions Shackley makes between the North American bigfoot, the Asian yeti, and the almas. Many books simply state bigfoot (et al.) is seen all over the world - and known as yeti, almas, etc in other countries - without noting the difference in footprints, height, and general appearance. I suspect the root of this is that many people who take the study of mystery hominids seriously would rather NOT note the differences. It's hard enough to try to convince people that ONE mystery ape exists. When you start adding in that there may be several TYPES across the world - not to mention several types in North America - the eyebrows of disbelief will no doubt get raised even higher.

However, there are considerable differences, as Shackley notes. Most of the almas reports indicate it is a roughly man-sized creature as opposed to the bigger yeti and the massive bigfoot types. Some of the almas reports have the creatures wearing skins, using tools, trading with humans, even using primitive bow and arrow.

Still Living? is full of such reports - much of the book concentrates on Asia and Eurasia - from Tibet and Mongolia through the Caucasus region - so it's not just another re-telling of the Albert Ostman story (as compelling as it is) with other reports you've heard before ... there are many remarkable encounters related throughout the text that I've never read elsewhere.

Those who ascribe to the 'bigfoot-is-an-ape-in-the-woods' theory will find a lot to love in this text. There is no discussion of the strange lights and other seemingly paranormal elements that accompany many bigfoot sightings. In a novice-friendly, but not simplistic way, Shackley presents history and science supporting the idea that these creatures may in fact be relict hominids. A revised and updated edition, accounting for new neanderthal information and almas reports after 1983, would be very valuable - but this edition is still worth seeking out, and readily available as a used book.

Friday, July 1, 2016

SEEKERS started with a quest to get to the bottom of a York County (PA) legend, Toad Road and the "Seven Gates of Hell" - and that story is forthcoming in my book, Beyond the Seventh Gate (a quick note... there is not and never was an insane asylum on Toad Road - nor are there seven gates. In fact the Seven Gates were previously located in both Hex Hollow and Prospect Hill Cemetery - depending on who you asked). There's a lot more to Toad Road than a fabricated story about a mad doctor and an asylum that never was. Much more on that in the book... and I'm sure on future posts here as well.

In the cold rain and mud my friends and I pushed on and we went where few ever go - rather than repeating urban legends we decided to get to the rather muddy bottom of things - and when we were there we caught the bug. It was then we decided we needed to form a local group to investigate cryptids and other strange sightings. We reached out to a few other groups* but for whatever reason they were closed to us - there's more than a touch of elitism and covetousness of evidence in this field.

Anyone who claims to be an "expert" in this field is as likely to be filled with self importance as they are with information. There's a lot of big fish in a very small pond - and in the wake of the "reality" TV shows dealing with bigfoot and other cryptids it seems many of these fish have stars in their eyes. Good luck with that.

We grew up with punk rock though - and the great lesson we took from that was "Do It Yourself." In punk rock, it applied to just picking up a guitar, starting a band - without concern about being a rock star. Don't wait for a record contract, release your own record. So, in the DIY spirit, we formed SEEKERS.

We aren't trying to be "reality" TV stars. We aren't deluded into thinking we will prove the existence of these creatures to the scientific community. We investigate for our own curiosity and interests. Unless we have their permission, we will never share witnesses names or locations on private property - but we are open to sharing any ideas or revelations we have with other researchers - as we hope to learn from them as well.

There are other groups with a bigger web presence but if you have seen bigfoot, dogman, or other cryptids in the south-central PA area, why not send the report to us? Send it to western PA or somewhere else in the US if you want - we aren't trying to "own" people or reports - but why not let a local group have the information as well? We live here and we can get there quickly.

*There are some great exceptions to the closed groups - one excellent organization is the North American Dogman Project who is currently accepting members without asking "what can you do for us?" Their field manual is filled with excellent information.